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J. G. AVERY.

CORSET.

Patented Aug. 29, 1882.

By his Attorney N. PETERS. PhnwLimogmpher. wnshngmn. Dv C.

UNTTED STATES PATENT EETcE.,

JOHN G. AVERY, OE SPENCER, MASSACHUSETTS.

CORSET.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 263,379, dated August 29, 1882.

(No model.)

To all whom 'it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN G. AVERY, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Spencer, in the State ot Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Corsets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the stifteners7 of corsets and other stitt'ened article ot' ladies7 wearing-apparel, such as bustlcs and hoopskirts.

Prior to my invention the use or application of close-coiled wire77 as stitt'eners for corsets has been proposed, ordinarily spirally-coiled.

single wire being used and referred to. In practice such single-wire coils7 are found to be deficient in the primary quality of stiffness unless made of a weight and diameter which preclude their use. By constructing, applying, and using instead an article, hereinafter specified, which I term multiple wire,77 consisting ot' close spiral coils of two or more wires each, the requisite stiffness is obtained without increased diameter, weight, or amount of stock, while stifieners ot' this multiple wire of any desired length can be made so as to be applied continuously, it' desired. Moreover, owing to their great stiffness in proportion to their weigh t, these multiple-wire stit't'eners can be used to advantage as substitutes for steels 7 or busks7 as well as for whalebones and the like in corsets, and also as substitutes for lioop-wire7in bustles and hoop-skirts, with freedom from liability to break and from sharp edges.

In the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, Figure l is a front View of a corset with iny improved stit'feners, portions of the outer thickness of fabric being removed to expose illustrative stift'euers. Fig. 2 is a view of a piece of one of the stit'teners magnified, and Fig. 3 represents a crosssection through the front of the corset on the same scale as Fig. 2.

Like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The body fabric of the corset (represented at z y) may be of any approved description, cut, and make up, and its t'astenings x may be of any preferred form. I have shown buttons and button-holes, as these can most readily be used in connection with multiple-wire substitutes for front steels. Multiple-wire stiffeners so applied are shown at a. Others applied in ordinarily-arranged pockets are shown at b, and still others, arranged continuously so as to extend transversely across the lower portions of the corset, as well as longitudinally, are shown at c. Ihe improved stitt'eners may be thus applied with great advantage in abdominal corsets. Each multi ple-wire stiifener is a close spiral coil, formed by ceiling two or more similar wires, l 2, Fig. 2, around a suitable mandrel, which may consist of a piece of the same wire, and then withdrawing the latter, the wire employed being preferably steel wire hardened uniformly either before or in the act of ceiling. The length originally need only be limited by that of the individual wires, and wire of a given length will obviously producel multiple-wire coils two or more times as long as its equivalent single wire, which is advantageous in manufacturing multiple wire for continuous77 stit'teners c. Cut to proper lengths for individual stit'feners, the multiple wire may be tempered with any desired iset7 for its respective positions, like ordinary corset-steels. For preventing rust I propose to tin or nickel-plate the multiple wire or to use what is known as the Bart't' Bown rustless-iron 7 process.

Vhen in position and in use multiple-wire stiffeners possess and utilizea greatly-increased power to resist lateral bends as compared with single coils of the same wire. This stiffness is produced not only by the increased sectional area of metal in each stifener, butvby the greater inclination or pitch of the successive convolutions of eaehwire, which reduces iexibility, and by that tensile and frictional resistance to the lateral displacement of the individual convolutions which is due to the more than multiplied resistance to elongation which a close multiple-wire coil possesses as compared with a close single coil, and the overlapping ot' the successive convolutions of one wire by those ot' another, as seen in Fig. 2. Moreover, the multiple-wire stit'teners possess said quality of superior stiffness in and of themselves without the loss of anyother useful quality and without anyr addition t0 their weight or bulk or material increase of cost as compared with those of close singlewire coils of the same stock. f

The multiplewire stiffeners will ordinarily IOO be sewed in in the process of' making up the article, as illustra-ted at a and c, Fig. 3; but owing.,r to their stiffness they are peculiarly adapted to be used even loosely in ordinary boue pockets, as shown at b.

Havingthus described my saidimprovement, I would have it understood that I do not claim broadly corset-stiffeners of wire in the forni ot' close spiral coils, as this, I am aware, is not new; but

I claim as new and of my inventionl. A multiplewire stiftener for corsets and like articles composed of two or more wires in one and the same close spiral coil, with the successive eomfolutionsof cach Wire separated and overlapped by those of the other wire or wires, as herein specified, for the purposes set forth.

2. The combination, with the body fabric of a corset or like article, of multiple-Wire stiffeners, each composed of two or more wires overlapping each other ina close spiral coil and re-ent'orcing cach other as to stiffness, substantially as herein set forth.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a corset provided with Stiffeuers of lnultiple Wire, each composed ot' two or more Wires in a close spiral coil, substantially as herein described.

JOHN (l. AVERY.

W'itnesscs:

LEANDER SIBLEY, E. E. DreKERMAN. 

